LANGUAGE IN INDIA 
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                                      ISSN 1930-2940 
                                             
              
                  
                                 A GRAMMAR 
                                          OF 
                                MALAYALAM 
              
                                             
                            Ravi Sankar S Nair, Ph.D. 
                               ravisankarnair101@gmail.com 
                                    
              
              
              
              
              
              
              
              
              
              
                                                                  
              
              
                                             
                                             
              
                                             
              
             Language in India www.languageinindia.com 
             ISSN 1930-2940 
             12 : 11 November 2012   
             Ravi Sankar S Nair, Ph.D. 
             A GRAMMAR OF MALAYALAM                                       1 
                                      Preface 
              
             The grammatical tradition in Malayalam, compared to the three other major Dravidian 
             languages, is neither extensive nor ancient. Liilaatilakam, dated to the closing years of 
              th
             14  century, is generally considered as the earliest treatise referring to grammatical 
             structures of Malayalam. This, however, is not a work of grammar as such, but deals 
             mainly with rhetoric as applied to Manipravaalam, the literary language that was an 
             admixture of Malayalam and Sanskrit.  
              
             Except some brief treatises in Portuguese, Latin and English authored by missionaries, up 
                th
             to 19  century Malayalam did not have a proper grammar. Hermann Gundert’s Malayala 
             bhasaa vyaakaranam first published in 1851 and the revised and enlarged version coming 
             out in 1868 was the first proper grammatical treatise of Malayalam. Rev. George 
             Mathen’s Malayaalmayute vyaakaranam (1863), Pachu Mootthatu’s Keeralabhaasaa 
             vyaakaranam, A.R Rajaraaja Varma’s Keerala paaniniyam (originally published in 1896; 
             revised and enlarged edition in 1917) and M. Seshagiri Prabhu’s Vyaakaranamitram 
             (1904) followed.  
              
             Grammatical literature from this point of time was essentially focused on Keerala 
             paaniniiyam, which came to enjoy almost the status of an ‘authorised grammar’ of 
             Malayalam.  
              
             While Rajaraja Varma’s work stands out by its breadth of coverage and scholarship, it 
             cannot be denied that grammatical tradition in Malayalam has remained too long within 
             the ambit of a grammar written nearly a century back. A common grammatical tradition 
             drawing on various grammars failed to evolve and consequently the framework of 
             Keerala paaniniiyam continued as the sole grammatical model in Malayalam. The 
             grammars written in the post- Keerala paaniniiyam period are essentially explanatory 
             treatises on Keerala paaniniiyam.  
              
             While a few grammarians have suggested alternative analyses in some areas, the 
             grammars themselves faithfully follow the basic framework of Rajaraja Varma. For a 
             period of more than 80 years from Keerala paaniniiyam, no grammarian attempted either 
             to extend the Keerala paaniniyam model to produce a more comprehensive treatment of 
             Malayalam or to analyze the grammatical structure of Malayalam using alternative 
             models of grammatical description. Keerala paaniniyam and other traditional grammars 
             have extensively covered the morphology of the language. However, there is precious 
             little in them about syntax and semantics.   
              
             Having to deal with the structure of a modern language like Malayalam using a restricted 
             grammatical model has had serious repercussions in many fields. Researchers in the 
             fields of Computational Linguistics, speech pathology and language teaching very often 
             lament the absence of a more modern and comprehensive grammar of Malayalam, 
             especially one that adequately covers syntactic and semantic aspects.   
             Language in India www.languageinindia.com 
             ISSN 1930-2940 
             12 : 11 November 2012   
             Ravi Sankar S Nair, Ph.D. 
             A GRAMMAR OF MALAYALAM                                   2 
              
             From the 1960’s researchers in modern linguistics have published in many journals 
             pertinent analyses on various aspects of Malayalam grammar. A modern full-fledged 
             grammar of Malayalam was however, not attempted until 1997 when Asher and Kumari 
             published Malayalam under the Descriptive Grammars series edited by Bernard Comrie. 
             This work represents the most comprehensive and in-depth coverage of Malayalam 
             available.  Syntax, morphology and phonology of Malayalam are extensively covered 
             drawing on the traditional views as well as modern linguistic analyses. The lacunae in the 
             traditional grammatical description has, however, not been entirely cleared up. Various 
             syntactic and semantic features associated with categories and structures of Malayalam 
             remained to be analyzed.  
              
             Vaakyadarśanam of Ravi Sankar S. Nair (2011) was an attempt in this direction. Basic 
             categories and structures of Malayalam are defined and described in this work, followed 
             by analyses of the syntactic and semantic features of each. The various sentence 
             structures and word formation mechanisms are also analyzed.  
              
             The present work draws on Vaakyadarśanam.  The first three chapters on Noun, Verb 
             and Modifiers describe the semantic and syntactic features of each of these word classes. 
             The sub-categories are extensively classified. The last chapter provides a description of 
             the different sentence types in Malayalam.  
              
             Acknowledgements 
              
             The author is deeply indebted to the late Prof. Somasekharan Nair (formerly Professor, 
             Department of Linguistics, University of Kerala) for encouragement and advice during 
             the early stages of the preparation of Vaakyadarśanam, from which the present work is 
             drawn. Late Prof. A. P. Andrewskutty and Prof E. V. N Namboodiri (both from the 
             Department of Linguistics, University of Kerala) offered insightful comments on the 
             Malayalam version. I am grateful to Dr. Vijayendra Bhas and Dr. Kumari Nirmala, my 
             colleagues in the Hadramouth University of Science and Technology, for support and 
             constant encouragement.  
              
             Dedication 
              
             Dedicated to the young men and women of the Republic of Yemen, who lost their lives in 
             their struggle against an authoritarian regime in their country, during the early months of 
             2011 when the final version of this book was being written in the city of Seiyun in 
             Yemen where I was teaching.  
              
              
             Ravi Sankar S Nair   
             10 October 2012 
              
             Language in India www.languageinindia.com 
             ISSN 1930-2940 
             12 : 11 November 2012   
             Ravi Sankar S Nair, Ph.D. 
             A GRAMMAR OF MALAYALAM                                       3 
              
              
              
              
             CONTENTS 
              
             1. NOUN 
              
             1 .1 Case System 
             1 .1.1 Introduction 
             1 .1.2 Nominative 
             1 .1.3 Accusative 
             1 .1.4 Dative 
             1 .1.5 Sociative 
             1 .1.6 Instrumental 
             1 .1.7 Locative 
             1.3 Number and gender 
             1.4 Pronoun 
             1.4.1 Introduction 
             1.4.2 Personal pronouns 
             1.4.3 Reflexive pronouns 
             1.4.4 Interrogative pronouns 
             1.4.5 Possessive pronouns 
             1.4.6 Indefinite pronouns 
              
              2. VERB 
              
              2.0 Classification of verbs 
              2.1 Finite verbs 
              2.1.1 Stative verbs 
              2.1.1.1 Conjunctive verb aak 
              2.1.1.2      Meanings denoted by aak 
              2.1.1.3     aak as lexical verb 
              2.1.1.4    Cleft constructions 
              2.1.1.5     Aspectual form 
              2.1.1.6     Emphasizing different elements 
                                    
              2.1.1.2 Conjunctive verb untǔ 
              2.1.2.1       Meanings denoted by untǔ    
              2.1.2.2       Aspectual usage  
              2.1.2.3       Differences between aak and untǔ 
              
              2.1.1.3 Participial forms of conjunctive verbs 
             Language in India www.languageinindia.com 
             ISSN 1930-2940 
             12 : 11 November 2012   
             Ravi Sankar S Nair, Ph.D. 
             A GRAMMAR OF MALAYALAM                                       4